by Pamela Ronald on 31 December 2011 From Tomorrow's Table
In Memoriam,
by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
Ring out the grief that saps the mind
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.
Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.
Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes
But ring the fuller minstrel in.
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This post was syndicated from Tomorrow's Table You may comment on the original entry.
by Karl Haro von Mogel on 29 December 2011 Biofortified has recently reached three years of age, and we’ve had a lot of fun blogging about plant genetics in this time. We’ve talked about genetic engineering, plant breeding, organic agriculture, legal and social issues, food, and general science. Everyone has been learning new things, and sharing what they know, and discussion has been better than ever before. We even had one discussion pass 500 comments! We’re looking forward to doing a lot more of this, and including more people and perspectives in these discussions. But as we approach the end of the year, we have come to realize that we need to raise money to keep doing what we do, and especially if we plan to do more.
Money Matters
In 2009, due to an outpouring of support from the science blogging community and from our readers for what we’re trying to do, we won a contest that provided our blog with a $1,500 grant that helped us revamp the site, pay for hosting and purchase prizes to build a community of readers, and get some more diverse content on the blog. Now, after two years our grant is running out and we are going to need more funds to continue to keep our blog community going strong, and expand it with some more projects.
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by Joe Ballenger on 23 December 2011 I think it’s safe to say that most folks have had experiences with lice. Every entomologist I’ve ever met (including myself… buy me a few beers and I’ll tell you) has at least one entertaining pubic louse story. Head lice are a childhood rite of passage, with most kids being infested at one point or another. They’re generally harmless with the occasional secondary infection, but infested kids are prone to teasing and other forms of exclusion by classmates. Distraction due to constant itching can also be a problem. Since schools don’t want children being infested for obvious reasons, kids are sent home because of infestation, resulting in parents missing work. Even though lice are mainly nuisance pests, they’re still a pretty big economic pest and account for billions of dollars per year in lost productivity.
When lice strike
 "We all have lice" by Antonia Hayes via Flickr. Head lice are something almost everyone has to deal with, and head lice treatments are something someone buys every once and awhile. These are big business in and of themselves. Because they’re big business, many firms have started popping up offering louse treatments with varying degrees of effectiveness.
A while back, I went through my own head louse ordeal with my daughter. Treatment was complicated by a family member who didn’t realize they were infested. We originally thought the lice were resistant to treatment, so I had to get a second treatment. Since then, I’ve become curious about what is for sale in stores for Over The Counter (OTC) head louse treatments and generally take a look at whatever treatments I can when I get the chance. Over the years, I’ve become surprised at how many dubious treatments are offered for sale (although perhaps I shouldn’t be) and how many of these use questionable advertising techniques mostly built upon fear rather than science. Many treatments offered for sale over the counter are either unproven, or have been proven not to work.
First, let’s discuss some headlouse biology. Then, let’s discuss how the treatments currently FDA approved work. In Do OTC Head Louse Treatments Work? Part 2: Questionable treatments, I’ll discuss the dubious treatments.
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by Anastasia on 23 December 2011  Will you help turn this disorganized stack into a useable database? Files by Horrgakx via Flickr. Here at Biofortified, we’ve been collecting citations of papers about the risks and safety of genetic engineering. The goal of this collection is to populate our GENetic Engineering Risk Atlas (GENERA) with citations and, eventually, unbiased summaries of the literature. The database would be useful to anyone looking for more information about genetic engineering, from interested consumers to farmers to scientists.
Our biggest struggle so far has been trying to figure out how to turn this disorganized list into a useable database. The main stumbling block has been the sheer volume of work that needs to be done to summarize and present all the information we eventually want to. Finally, today, a stroke of genius: We can do it in steps, and crowd-sourcing is the key!
You, dear readers, make Biofortified great by getting involved in conversations and bringing new people to the site. Now, you can contribute to Biofortifed’s biggest project to-date and help create an important resource about genetic engineering. If you have some time this holiday season, you could help us enter the basic details about each study such as the authors, title, abstract, etc. into a spreadsheet that we can import into GENERA.
If everyone enters a few studies, we’ll have them done in no time. Please let us know if you would like to help – we have files all ready for people to work on. Just send us a message via our contact page and Karl or I will respond ASAP.
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About Biofortified Biofortified's volunteer authors are devoted to providing factual information and fostering discussion about agriculture, especially plant genetics and genetic engineering. The site is written by grad students, professors, and guest experts. Meet our authors on the Authors page.
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Do OTC Head Louse Treatments Work? Part 2: Questionable treatments
Editor’s note: Thanks to Joe for Biofortified’s first post of 2012! Here’s to a great year of science blogging!
I like to think of myself as a skeptical blogger. I like to engage in critical thinking about scientific issues because this is an important aspect of my job as a graduate assistant. When I move into the workforce, I’ll still need some basic skills to parse evidence because this is my job as a scientist. Mythbusting is a great opportunity to do this, and I enjoy discussing things which may help people who read my posts whenever I can. Being an entomologist gives me some rather interesting opportunities to do this, which is leading me to discuss head lice of all things.
Pediculus humanus capitis by Gilles San Martin via Flickr.
In my last post, Do OTC Head Louse Treatments Work? Part 1: Mechanisms, I explained how the most commonly used FDA-approved treatments worked. In addition to those science-based products, there are many products that have no evidence of efficacy behind their claims, and that rely on fear to make a sale. What I’ve seen deeply concerns me not only as a scientist trying to make the world a better place, but as a parent trying to raise my daughter the best that I can. In this post, I’ve taken a few commonly sold products and listed some ways in which I think they play fast and loose with their claims.
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